#FutureofCities - L.A. River

Sony α7R, FE 55mm F1.8 ZA (F-Stop: 2.0, Shutter: 1/2500, ISO: 100)

The Army Corp of Engineers carried out an ambitious plan to encase the Los Angeles River in concrete after catastrophic floods in the 1930s led to calls for flood control. Except for a few places where the muddy bottom was impossible to replace, the river was turned into a concrete drainage channel. The ecology of the river disappeared, making room for development and a flood-free city.

#FutureofCities - L.A. River

Sony α7R, FE 55mm F1.8 ZA (F-Stop: 9.0, Shutter: 1/250, ISO: 100)

A discarded California map found along train tracks next to the Los Angeles river in downtown LA. The river parallels and passes under numerous highways en route to Long Beach, where it spills into the Pacific Ocean.

#FutureofCities - L.A. River

Sony α7R, FE 35mm F2.8 ZA (F-Stop: 2.8, Shutter: 1/80, ISO: 400)

As developers catch wind of the city's plans to revitalize the river be creating parks and bike paths along the river, removing much of the concrete encasement, and restoring some of its ecology, neighborhoods like Elysian Valley have begun to see real estate speculation. Working class families that have been rooted in the neighborhood for generations have received offers to sell their homes for well over their market value. As the drought in California carries on, attention on the river has grown.

#FutureofCities - L.A. River

Sony α7R, FE 35mm F2.8 ZA (F-Stop: 11.0, Shutter: 1/500, ISO: 500)

One Sunday morning, a small group of activists brought kayaks and trash bags into one of several soft bottom stretches along the river above the Sepulveda dam and collected trash caught in the trees and rocks.

#FutureofCities - L.A. River

#FutureofCities - L.A. River

Sony α7R, FE 35mm F2.8 ZA (F-Stop: 2.8, Shutter: 1/400, ISO: 200)

The Los Angeles River trail, a new bike path running between the residential neighborhood of Elysian Valley and the river near Griffith Park. The vast majority of Los Angeles' rainwater drains into the concrete encasement. Lacking sufficient groundwater for its population, Los Angeles imports its drinking water from the Colorado River through the California Aqueduct. Plans are underway to restore the limited local water source that is the LA River.

Carolyn Drake

"There is no story that is not true... The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others." – Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

Carolyn Drake is a photographer working globally on personal projects and assigned commissions. Between 2007 and 2013, she pursued two long term projects in Central Asia. The first – Two Rivers – explores the shifting borders, histories, and life systems in the geographic spaces between Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, and China. The second project, Wild Pigeon, is an amalgem of photographs, drawings, embroidery, and texts made in Uyghur areas of western China. It explores the boundaries of photography while telling the story of a culture being disrupted and reshaped.

Carolyn is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright fellowship, the Lange Taylor Documentary Prize, and a World Press Photo award, among others. In 2013, she relocated from Istanbul, Turkey to Water Valley, Mississippi to begin a new body of work.

About / Biography

Carolyn Drake is a photographer working globally on personal projects and assigned commissions. Between 2007 and 2013, she created two books of photography rooted in Central Asia. The first – Two Rivers – explores the shifting borders, histories, and life systems in the geographic spaces between Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, and China. The second book – Wild Pigeon – is an amalgem of photographs, drawings, embroidery, and texts made in collaboration with Uyghurs in western China.

Carolyn is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright fellowship, the Lange Taylor Documentary Prize, among other awards. In 2013, she relocated from Istanbul, Turkey to the United States to begin a new body of work.

Commissions / Image Galleries

Interview

Describe the moment you knew photography changed your life.It's not like photography just came along one day and changed my life. I see it more like I changed my life by choosing photography. It was gradual and it took a lot of work.

If you could sum up your work in one word or one sentence, what would that be? Probably one of the reasons I'm drawn to photography is that I see it as an opening rather than a summation. I make images that reflect on the questions I have about how the world works and how humans fit into it.

What is the most remarkable person, place or thing you have ever photographed and why? I don't rank my photo shoots. They all offer something different and are full of challenges, revelations, mistakes, opportunities to experiment and learn and change.

Talk to us about your bucket list... what is on the top of that list of things to photograph? I recently moved back to the US after living in Istanbul for many years and have been observing and reading and thinking a lot about ideas and themes that I want to explore here over the long term. But I don't have a bucket list at the moment.

If you had not become a photographer, what might you be today? It's hard to say what might have happened. I like films a lot but prefer not to work with big crews. I like the idea of being a writer but find the process of writing to be mentally grueling. I also like the idea of being a painter but haven't picked up a paintbrush since I was a kid. I'm happy as a photographer, but still find a lot of inspiration from film and literature.

What is your favourite Sony camera of the moment? The α7R is the first Sony camera I've used and so far I'm very happy with it. I like its small size, the large size of the file. I like that I can change lenses. I like what it does in bright light and I hear it also does well in low light, though I haven't tested that much yet.